#1 2021-02-17 21:42:08

justaghost

Member

Registered: 2021-02-17

Posts: 5

How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

Objective:I've currently downloaded the 'busenlab-lithium-iso-amd64' on my Windows 10 VBox to do some testing and tweaking. However My goal is to move/copy my custom-designed VDI out onto a usb drive. So that I have a bootable-OS that I can take anywhere with the tools/specs I need.

Issue: The problem I'm finding at the moment is that many of the backup/iso build tools (i.e. Systemback, Live-Magic, Linux-Live-kit...etc) don't seem to work with OS. I love the OS but I need to test my customized-distro on
a physical machine. Are there any tools already on the OS? Or do I need to
download a special tool?

--Appreciate the help, sorry for any poor english

tknomanzr

BL Die Hard

From: Around the Bend

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 1,057

Re: How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

You would be better off enabling persistence on your USB stick for a customized Bunselabs. However, having said that, VDI files are pretty portable. You should be able to copy them from one Virtualbox instance to the next. Tools commonly used for copying, outside of the GUI, are rsync and dd. Rsync is a fantastic tool that automatically handles incremental backups, among other things. dd is a direct byte-by-byte transfer tool that is great for cloning drives, etc. For large file transfers and backups, I prefer rsync, however, because it piggy-backs over the top of ssh nicely.

I have also seen custom vdi's built with ansible. This is how we deployed our development environments in my last job. I would consider ansible a fairly advanced topic, however, as it took me the better part of a month to fix their onboarding process.

Last edited by tknomanzr (2021-02-18 00:12:12)

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justaghost

Member

Registered: 2021-02-17

Posts: 5

Re: How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

Alright thanks for the response, i'll see if I can do anyhting with rsync, then work my way back to a USB w/ persistence from there if all else fails. I just to make sure there was an ability to build my own customized iso-usb based off of the OS b/c i've like it thus far

unklar

Back to the roots 1.9

From: #! BL

Registered: 2015-10-31

Posts: 2,709

Re: How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

Maybe https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

justaghost

Member

Registered: 2021-02-17

Posts: 5

Re: How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

yooo much love to everyone for the asistance. @unklar this ventoy tool is f-ing awesome dude! \m/(^_^)\m/ this will make  building my own custom distro project alot easier for expirimentation--thanks

Last edited by justaghost (2021-02-18 10:58:31)

justaghost

Member

Registered: 2021-02-17

Posts: 5

Re: How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

Maybe https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

Thanks again m8, but one last (possibly dumb) question I assume if i boot into busenlab distro and I select "install" at the boot rather than "live" that it will install the OS on my actuall system not the USB i'm running it on?

Basically i'd like to make sure any OS changes I do are isolated to the USB ( aka now my "ventoy" usb ), rather than my actually system. Hope that makes sense

1eth1lambo

Member

Registered: 2023-01-18

Posts: 13

Re: How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

Might be a thread necro, but I'm doing the exact same thing with my install.
I haven't  mucked about with VDI files myself, but just 'fixed' sized VHD's in VirtualBox and Windows Hyper-V. 
Hyper-V is much faster for me compared to VirtualBox.

I made an install directly onto a USB thumb drive.  Once you're happy with the setup of that BunsenLabs install,
go to this site: https://github.com/ventoy/vtoyboot/releases .  This will allow the USB to be bootable off a Ventoy / E2B-Ventoy / YUMI drive.  Run the sh script in SUDO.

Then you need to make an image of the drive.. I use Rufus for that.  I haven't tried DD to make the image, but I think that may also work.
Specify the file to be saved as <name>.VTOY and you'll be able to have a persistent BunsenLabs OS on that, along with other ISO's on the multiboot.  Copy the *.VTOY into your Ventoy folder to access it from boot.

You can use the exact same image to interface with Windows Hyper-V(I don't bother with VirutalBox as that's too laggy).
IMPORTANT: DISABLE checkpoints on the virtual machine.
You'll also need to rename the *.VTOY extension to a *.VHD file whenever you want to use the USB in Hyper-V.  But a more elegant solution is just to make a symbolic file link instead:
mklink BunsenOS.VHD BunsenOS.VTOY

I'm not sure how do the VDI/VHD to physical USB thing as I mentioned I did my install initially from USB.  If you figured out a way to do that, that would be good info back

unklar

Back to the roots 1.9

From: #! BL

Registered: 2015-10-31

Posts: 2,709

Re: How to build a custom portable Busenlab Lithium Distro?(Based off VDI)

The recommended way at BL is dd and not rufus.